Uh
I suppose they have Yuri somewhere ready to pounce
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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One big question is to what extent is a very isolated Putin aware of the massive casualties now being suffered by his troops? There are some commentators who believe that everyone, without exception, in the very small group now around him are too scared to deliver the bad news.
If this is true, we'd have a completely bizarre situation in which his invasion forces slowly disintegrate towards collapse, whilst Putin, blissfully unware, continues with his totalitarian demands for Ukrainian surrender.
I guess ultimately it would play out a bit like the Hitler-in-the-bunker scene in Downfall ... of which, incidentally, there are now several Ukraine-versions if anyone has not seen them. Here's one example:
If this is true, we'd have a completely bizarre situation in which his invasion forces slowly disintegrate towards collapse, whilst Putin, blissfully unware, continues with his totalitarian demands for Ukrainian surrender.
I guess ultimately it would play out a bit like the Hitler-in-the-bunker scene in Downfall ... of which, incidentally, there are now several Ukraine-versions if anyone has not seen them. Here's one example:
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It’s like if Stalin did a reverse Barbarossa
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Thats how the Japanese were in WW2 -- Army versus Navy. They literally hated each other. and in some cases worked against each other.
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They keep putting more helicopters at the same airfield where they got blown up the other day without being able to protect them.They've also pushed the Russians out of several villages to the West and Northwest of Kyiv (Makariv and Moshchun). It seems they are counter-attacking towards Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel where fighting has been focused since the start. If they are able to eliminate those forces, it would remove the threat to Kyiv from the West.
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At this rate they will be out of equipment soon.Tweet
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They've also pushed the russians out of several villages to the West and Northwest of Kyiv (Makariv and Moshchun)
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They've also pushed the Russians out of several villages to the West and Northwest of Kyiv (Makariv and Moshchun). It seems they are counter-attacking towards Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel where fighting has been focused since the start. If they are able to eliminate those forces, it would remove the threat to Kyiv from the West.
This could go in the Hypernormalisation thread.
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Ukrainian police hunt down Russian 'saboteurs' at Kyiv train station
The best Blackadder ever and one of the funniest TV shows ever. Anyone who disagrees will be put under house arrest. Fin.
I find it tedious when chess players talk about "strategy" as if they're some sort of authority. How high a price would you pay for freedom? What exactly is freedom? Is a country's freedom worth one life? A thousand?
Is life worth it after all?
Nothing really matters. Anyone can see.
I'm not sure why he keeps getting quoted. His other tweets include his belief that Putin is actually more likely to use nukes if NATO don't intervene as he'll feel he can do what he wants. You can make your own mind up in that but to me it's nonsense.
Putin isn't rampaging through Europe he doesn't have that capacity. He'll be more than aware of how fecked Russia is right now. The rest of the world have boxed his aggression and whilst that's intolerable for Ukraine (and anyone watching on) it's NATO and not Putin that are the winners.
Life is worth everything for the person living it. For them it is worth more than anything. At least, that is in a pure biological point of view. For some reason people have a kind of bee-mentality. Die and take one for the hive.
Life matters. Freedom is an illusion.
I think the West is very aware of the sit rep but are taking things cautiously. No need to blow the trumpet loudly and distract the soldiers on the field. Russia also has chemical weapons that can turn the tide quickly.
Just like in football, you can do well for 89 minutes and then let in 2 late goals if you let your guard down.
It is a good sign that the Ukrainians have resisted this well so far, and the Switchblade drones and new Allied weapons haven't even arrived yet.
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Calling Kasparov a mere chess player is sheer ignorance at this point. There’s a reason he is exiled from Russia.
You might be able to answer your question better in a personal capacity the more you read and learn. For example, a place like North Korea I used to find more curious and odd, a place I thought I would naively like to visit one day. When I actually spent the time to read and listen to people who had lived and were fortunate to escape from North Korea, I realised how stupid I was to hold such a place with any degree of fascination. Ditto speaking to my wife’s grandparents who lived through the Soviet Union and were essentially forced to move about the empire to meet its needs.
The vast majority of us on this forum have no idea how privileged we are to be born and live in relatively stable democracies with a high degree of freedom and tolerance.
That's one hell of a video. Explains a lot.
He’s not getting quoted because he’s a chess player, he’s an exiled Russian with experience of the Soviet Union who is a human rights activist and has been bang on about Putin not stopping with Crimea and invading Ukraine.
Not only that, but he was political opponent of Putin, basically one of the very few that are not in jail / killed. Being chess player is the last reason he is getting airtime now.
The BBC says:
"Ukrainian military are reporting that a company that produces and repairs Russian tanks has suspended work at its plant in the central Russian region of Chelyabinsk due to a shortage of imported parts.
In a statement posted to Facebook, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports that manufacturer Uralvagonzavod has had to pause production at the facility "due to the lack of receipts of foreign-made components".
Ukrainian military information and consultancy company Defense Express reports that Uralvagonzavod provides the only plant that carries out the assembly of tanks.
It goes on to report that the manufacturer routinely uses Western components.
There are no reports referring to the Uralvagonzavod facility in Russian media and the BBC has not been able to confirm the information in the Ukrainian statement."
"Ukrainian military are reporting that a company that produces and repairs Russian tanks has suspended work at its plant in the central Russian region of Chelyabinsk due to a shortage of imported parts.
In a statement posted to Facebook, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports that manufacturer Uralvagonzavod has had to pause production at the facility "due to the lack of receipts of foreign-made components".
Ukrainian military information and consultancy company Defense Express reports that Uralvagonzavod provides the only plant that carries out the assembly of tanks.
It goes on to report that the manufacturer routinely uses Western components.
There are no reports referring to the Uralvagonzavod facility in Russian media and the BBC has not been able to confirm the information in the Ukrainian statement."
The BBC reports that the "UK's Ministry of Defence says Russian forces appear to be "stalled in place", with Ukraine "continuing to repulse" attempts to occupy the besieged southern city of Mariupol"
I wouldn't trust the source blindly without any additional evidence — Ukrainians are getting very good at the information war, pushing out the feel-good sentiments that are not always factually correct to inspire their own & to demotivate Russian forces. Not that this scenario is completely unbelievable (this whole war was and yet it's here), but I would be wary of such claims when they're not backed up by anything factual.
That's highly unlikely, otherwise there wouldn't be any internal repressions against high-placed FSB officers that were responsible for keeping tabs on Ukraine (and those repressions are already happening). And even if we imagine that he doesn't know that the operation is going badly, how would they explain that they haven't conquered any major city, let alone Kyiv, in almost a month?
It's a bit of a disservice to think of Kasparov as just a chess player, to say the least. He has been a political activist for 30+ years campaigning against oppression in Russia. He is one of, if not Putin's most vocal critic and has been for a long time, which means risking his life and putting his family in danger.
He's a brave man and although I might disagree with his wish for NATO to intervene and put an end to this, he's pretty much been right all along.
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To be fair, and not to reduce the resilience of the men who had to hold on in Bastogne surrounded for days, but they did have a significant strategic advantage on a theater level and could therefore reasonably expect to be relieved eventually. Not sure it is the case right now for the Ukranians in Mariupol, although I wish it were.
Who's letting Putin win, and how? Some people seem to have a real boner for getting NATO involved in this war.
Apparently “De-Nazifying” Ukraine means killing Holocaust survivors.
Navalny gets another 9 years. Bastards.
Russia Navalny: Putin critic jailed for nine more years trial branded 'sham'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60832310
Russia Navalny: Putin critic jailed for nine more years trial branded 'sham'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60832310
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The real Russian encirclement...
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The length of the term is pretty relative given that Putin can release him whenever he wants to modulate public opinion. He released the likes of Pussy Riot and Khodorkovsky early back in 2013/14. Not that we're dealing with "that" Putin anymore at this point, so it may require a change in government for an early Navalny release.
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